Gateway Cup 2011

The Gateway Cup in St. Louis is one of the best racing series for amatuer racers in the Midwest.  The competition is always strong and the races are fast, very fast.  This was the second year that my family and made the trip down to St. Louis to enjoy the racing and the Labor Day weekend.

The Gateway Cup consists of 4 criteriums starting on a Friday evening and running through Monday.  The Friday night crit is held around Lafayette Square, an older historic neighborhood surrounding a park in the square.  Saturday's crit is in another great beighborhood in which the race encompasses a large park.  Sunday's race is in the Italian neighborhood and is a long but tight 4-corner course.  Finally, Monday's race imore of a circuit race than a crit and runs near the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

Racing didn't go the greatest for me this year.  Legs were a bust again at the end of the season.  I finished the first race safely in the middle of the field.  Finishing safely is the main thing as the race was very dangerous due to some horrible riding.  This is not an occurance only at this race, they were all dangerous.  The second race on saturday went about the same as the first and finished in the top 1/3 of the field.  Sunday's race at the Giro della Montagne was the end of my racing for the weekend.  Remember the statement about dangerous earlier?  I was finally feeling great and was racing strong, attempting a break off the front and remaining near or on the front the majority of the race.  With two laps to go coming out of turn 4 there was a massive pile-up.  I was riding about 20 wheels back and accelerating hard out of the corner when a few riders went down and slide across my path.  I had no where to go and one of the downed riders handlebars caught my front wheel, sending me head-over-heels onto the pavement.  I bounced hard off the pavement and tucked in as the field piled up on us.  When got up (slowly) looked and saw 3/4's of the field laying on the road.  I was hurting pretty bad and didn't resume racing.  Broke the carbon fairing of my front wheel, twisted the shifter, and broke my helmet.  I didn't race the Monday race and just enjoyed the remainder of the weekend.  That's racing!

Again, the Gateway Cup is a great series but it was a tough way to end the road season.  Luckily, there's always next year!